1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to telephone systems providing multiple party calling and more particularly to a multi-line calling telephone system capable of selectively controlling the interconnectivity and audio characteristics of each individual active telephone line.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Conference and multi-person calling have become increasingly popular and common calling techniques for businesses as well as individual subscribers. These multi-line calling techniques allow multiple callers to be connected to each other thereby allowing the callers to communicate with each other. The user may couple two or more telephone lines such that the user and the parties associated with the respective telephone lines may communicate with each other in a conference call. Alternatively, the user may place multiple calls and communicate with each of the called parties without allowing the called parties to communicate with each other. A telephone party may be conferenced or simultaneously coupled to multiple parties within a multi-line telephone or even an ordinary telephone. In a multi-line telephone, a plurality of telephone lines may be coupled to a single multi-line telephone unit. The user may select the particular telephone line from which to place a call or the particular line to answer an incoming call; alternatively, the multi-line telephone may automatically select the lines.
The multiple party calling concept may also be implemented within multi-media communication systems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,195,086 discloses a multiple call control method in a multimedia conferencing system where each call may comprise one or more channels. Such systems allow multiple parties to communicate over voice, video and data lines.
These conferencing and multi-line systems, however, are limiting in a variety of respects. For instance, these systems have a limited ability to control the interconnectivity between the parties in a multi-party call. As a result, these systems cannot handle a number of functions that the calling party may seek in a multi-line telephone system. For example, in the case where a calling party is conferenced with one or more conferenced parties, the calling party may seek to conference in a secret advisor to the call such that the secret advisor may hear the entire conversation, and advise the calling party without the secret advisor being heard by the other conferenced parties. Alternatively, if the calling party is on hold by the first called party, the calling party may seek to place other calls while on hold while not having the two calls conferenced together, yet continue to listen to the held call. The calling party may wish to independently monitor the line in which he/she is on hold while engaging in a discussion with the other called parties. In yet another example, the calling party may seek to make a plurality of non-conferenced calls and broadcast one or more messages, or simultaneously listen to all of the parties. Present systems are unable to provide the user with these and other such finer call control features that can greatly enhance the functionality of the system.
The conferencing and multi-line systems of the prior art are also limiting in that they are unable to control one or more audio characteristics of each individual line. Often, during a conference call, one party is calling through a bad telephone connection or the party is using a weak telephone receiver. This affects the conference call as this party is barely heard by the other parties to the conference call. Further, in the case of a half-duplex conferencing system, the party having the bad connection may not be able to interrupt when others are talking or even if there is background noise. Alternatively, where a party""s line has a lot of noise (such as in the case where the party is using a cellular phone), it may be desirable to reduce the volume or noise level from that party. In other call conferencing situations, the user may desire that the volume of one line be different than that of another line and also to re-adjust the connection mode. For example, in the case where the user is on hold on a first line and that line is playing background music, the calling party may wish to decrease the volume of that line while he/she continues discussions with another conferenced party on a second line. When the party from the first line returns, the calling party may then wish to re-adjust the volume of the first line relative to the second line. Telephone sets generally have volume control but this control merely adjusts the overall volume output from the telephone speaker. Such telephone sets are incapable of selectively distinguishing between the telephone lines to control the relative volume of each individual line or other audio characteristics of the line such as noise, bass, treble, etc.
Consequently, there remains a need in the art to provide a multi-line telephone system capable of providing enhanced interconnectivity control and selective control of one or more audio characteristics for each of the active telephone lines.
The present invention is directed to solving these and other problems and disadvantages of the prior art. The present invention is a method and apparatus for selectively controlling the interconnectivity and one or more audio characteristics of one or more active telephone lines during a conference or multi-line call. A bridge or a call connection control may be implemented to provide selective call connection for each telephone call. The user may thereby control the interconnectivity of each party to the user and to the other parties to the conference or multi-line call. An audio controller may also be implemented within a multi-line telephone or at a telephony switch. The call connection control or the audio control may be implemented within the telephone network such as a switch or locally at the telephone unit. The user may provide the desired interconnectivity or audio parameters for the multi party call using a user interface. Optionally, the audio controller may process the audio signals of the conferenced telephone lines and intelligently adjust one or more audio characteristics of the audio signals.
Further details and features of the present invention may be understood from a careful reading of the detailed description thereof which follows.